JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy files nomination for Channapatna Assembly bypoll
Bengaluru (PTI): JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy on Friday filed his nomination for the November 13 Assembly by-polls from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha, amid a show of strength along with alliance partner BJP.
The actor-turned-politician and NDA nominee was accompanied by wife Revathi, father Kumaraswamy, and BJP leaders -- former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra.
Earlier, the 36-year-old along with family members including his grandfather -- JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda -- visited a temple here.
After offering prayers at Kengal Anjaneya Swamy temple at Channapatna in the neighbouring Ramanagara district later, he held a massive road show accompanied by Kumaraswamy, Leader of Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka (BJP), Sadananda Gowda, Raghavendra, Mysuru BJP MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, along with a host of BJP and JD(S) leaders, for which a large number of party workers and supporters had turned up.
Ahead of filing his papers, the JD(S) youth wing president said fielding him as the candidate was an "unexpected development" for him, but leaders and workers of BJP and JD(S) showed confidence in him and have chosen him.
"The leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the relationship that Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy have developed with the people of the region over the years and the work they have done here will bless me," Nikhil said.
Kumaraswamy said: "This is not Nikhil Kumaraswamy's election. The Congress that is trying to disturb things in the country...when Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister... BJP-JD(S) by winning all the three segments in Karnataka, will put an end to the Congress' politics of conspiracy."
If any development has happened in Channapatna it was during the tenure of BJP and JD(S) in power, the Union Minister said, as he hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar questioning as to what they have done for the constituency "other than making speeches."
Nikhil is pitted against Congress' C P Yogeeshwara, a five-time Channapatna MLA, former Minister and a political heavyweight in the constituency, who switched sides from the BJP on Monday.
Kumaraswamy had won the Channapatna seat in the 2023 Assembly elections polling 96,592 votes against Yogeeshwara (then in BJP), who got 80,677 votes.
Nikhil's mother Anitha Kumaraswamy, a former MLA, had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2013 when she lost to Yogeeshwara.
With Yogeeshwara joining Congress to contest the Channapatna bypoll, pressure was mounting on Kumaraswamy from party workers and leaders to field Nikhil.
It is said that Kumaraswamy was in a dilemma, as Nikhil was not keen on contesting but buckled under pressure from party workers. Nikhil had said he was in favour of the party fielding a local JD(S) worker or a leader as candidate.
This is the third electoral battle for Nikhil. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Assembly from Ramanagara, which had propelled Deve Gowda to the post of Chief Minister, and was also represented by both his parents.
He had a disastrous electoral debut when he lost to BJP-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 polls.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
